Balancing Academic and Extracurricular Life

My name is Young, and I am the Deputy Head of College of Epsom 2024/2025. Being appointed to such an honorable role as a Year 13 student was a big opportunity, but also a big pressure for me. However, I would like to share my experience of keeping up my energy levels for my academics, and physical and mental health, and to be a good friend to my peers.

The first time I discovered that I was appointed as the Deputy Head of the College, I was extremely glad to dedicate my final year of college to our Epsom community.

Moreover, since I was also working in the Student Council and Peer Support team, the opportunity to assist our juniors widened and encouraged me to be even more passionate about being a prefect.

However, as a student taking triple sciences and math for A-level subjects, it was fairly concerning to balance everything that I had been doing, in addition to the new role. Furthermore, as the curriculum became even more challenging in Year 13, I felt that I needed even more time to study.

Therefore, I have tried to reduce some extracurricular activities and some time-consuming hobbies. For example, I have limited my time scrolling through social media and reduced the time of playing sports to just three times a week. On the other hand, I have developed some skills to finish my work quickly and efficiently, with enough quality to hopefully achieve higher grades. Although reducing my free time and time for hobbies seemed disheartening, instead I found that I started to be extra productive.

It has been only a few months since I started working, so I can not ensure that things will all work out in the best way. However, I can promise that I will try my hardest to balance my role with all the important values for me such as my friends, my grades, and building good memories.

Young-Gyoum Park
Deputy Heads of College